Tag: horror

Film Review: An Island Getaway No One Wanted

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Send Help is an interesting survival horror film with some solid performances in spite of the outlandish twists and turns throughout the experience.

Sam Raimi is the director of this film, which was written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien play the corporate colleagues who survive a spectacular plane crash and end up on what appears to be a completely deserted island.

Dennis Haysbert, Xavier Samuel, and Edyll Ismail are included in the small cast. Of course, the focus will be on the chemistry and banter between McAdams and O’Brien.

McAdams plays the shy, eccentric corporate strategist, Linda Liddle, who is passed over for an expected promotion by O’Brien’s typical spoiled new CEO for the company he basically inherited from his recently deceased father. Linda is a Survivor enthusiast and even auditioned for it. O’Brien’s Bradley Preston is shown the audition tape which amuses him and his cohorts greatly. Well, the plane suddenly develops a problem which kills everyone but Linda and Bradley and crashes into the island. After they awake and reunite on the island, their power struggle begins in earnest. Linda is the one with the knowledge of survival skills, and Bradley is just a spoiled jerk who has little respect for his strange subordinate. Linda’s many years of suffering underestimation and unappreciation may have unhinged her in ways that Bradley could never imagine.

On the whole, this is a pretty good film. Some of the twists were a surprise, but there was still more than a tinge of predictability as to what the final outcome would be.

The performances of McAdams and O’Brien were really quite compelling. O’Brien nailed the part of the obnoxious, entitled rich kid who ultimately cannot conceive that he could be in over his head. The evolution of McAdams’ character arc was pretty well written. I am not sure that McAdams is going to be considered one of the great actresses of the silver screen, but she does shine quite effectively here. She usually does more than hold her own alongside her peers in the projects that I have seen her participation.

Some of the gore still seemed a little too egregious at times, and I had some trouble believing that Linda Liddle would know that much about octopus’ toxins, which does involve a rather disturbing, grotesque scene of retribution midway through the film.

There are some moments that seemed a little too ridiculous at times, but I believe that was rather intentional in the writing.

Anyway, the story does seem to bring out some interesting thoughts on potential shifts in dynamics when two people from very different social standings are isolated and sharing a uniquely harrowing experience. Both of the lead characters had some depth when they were trying to outwit the other.

If one can handle some unnecessary gruesomeness and unlikely plot swings, the performances and a pretty interesting script still makes this film something I could recommend seeing.

Film Review: Murder At West Point

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Pale Blue Eye is an intriguing period gothic thriller written and directed by Scott Cooper. It was based on a novel written by Louis Bayard. Christian Bale stars as a retired detective who is asked to look into the mysterious hanging of a military cadet in 1830. Another cadet with the familiar name of Edgar Allen Poe, played by Harry Melling, is on hand to assist in the investigation. Other cast members include Gillian Anderson, of X-Files fame, Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, and Lucy Boynton.

As mentioned before, it is 1930, and a West Point cadet has been hanged. The detective is a retired alcoholic named Augustis Landor and is asked to start an investigation. A young but shrewd Edgar Allen Poe is enlisted to assist in this investigation. Also, a cow and a sheep turn up butchered.as well. Then, a second cadet is found hanged and mutilated. There seems to be some involvement of black magic, and Landor and Poe find their investigation taking them into the darkest of paths where there is little that is as it seems.

This turned out to have some interesting ideas, although I am not sure it was necessary to include Poe in this otherwise piece of fiction. The cast was well chosen so that certainly helps. The twist is a little too unexpected but not that bad. Some of the annoying plot holes are somewhat diminished by the talent of the cast. Bale is almost always quite compelling to watch and helps me forgive a lot of poor movie making decisions.

The set design and atmosphere were pretty well constructed. It has a great look and seems to fit the genre well.

The film is a bit on the gruesome side, but that doesn’t particularly bother me unless it fails to serve a purpose or just feels like it’s just there to test my stomach exclusively.

The film failed to keep me enthralled throughout, but it was not devoid of some worthy aspects to keep me at least mildly interested.

I suspect, unsurprisingly, that I would enjoy the book better if I happened to come across it. The movie didn’t really motivate me to seek it out.

Book Review: The Perils Of Prosperity Island

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

How Bad Things Can Get is the latest gruesome thriller from Darcy Coates.

A group of podcast fans is invited to Prosperity Island which is privately owned by a famous influencer where there should be plenty of games and parties. A guest named Ruth, and she has a secret. Twenty years previously, she was the sole survivor of a suicide cult. The games are getting more dangerous, and Ruth is starting to learn that her past may not be as buried as she had hoped.

This is a pretty intense tale. Coates doesn’t shy away from some pretty graphic violence. It’s a bit of a standard setup of a group of people stuck on an isolated island when something evil breaks out and starts picking attendees off.

Coates is a competent writer, but she relies on some pretty formulaic tropes in the horror genre. There are a few interesting characters among the more cliche ones.

There are some moments where Coates delves into some of the psychology of some of these people who have left the cult. There is a sense that she may have done some research even though I am certainly no expert on the human phenomenon of getting so ingrained in a community such as the one depicted in this novel.

The brutality depicted in this novel is pretty extreme, so it isn’t for the squeamish.

Coates does a decent job of keeping this reader engaged at any rate, so she is certainly an effective storyteller.

Anyway, I occasionally dip into the more macabre literary experiences, and Coates has once again proven to be an interesting addition to the genre if nothing else.

Now, I am going to sample a genre with which I have had very little exposure. I am going to try one short volume from the master of the western with Louis L’amour’s Kiowa Trail.

Film Review: Missing Children And A Strange Visitor

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Weapons is one of the few recent horror films that contains some semblance of creativity from writer and director, Zach Cregger. The cast includes Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan.

This film takes a somewhat non-linear path in its laying out of the story as it shifts perspectives among the characters. Very early one morning, seventeen children suddenly flee from their homes into the darkness running in a most unusual manner. They are classmates in a particular elementary school, and only one child named Alex is accounted for. The teacher, Justine Gandy, is suspected to be somehow behind the mysterious disappearances. An aggrieved father, played by Brolin, is the main accuser. Alex’s aunt, Gladys, has also been visiting and turns out to be a practitioner of witchcraft. Justine has to endure a particularly savage attack as she and Alex’s father come together to discover the truth behind the frightening and supernatural intrusion into their community.

First of all, Brolin remains as compelling as ever as Archer, the grieving and angry father of one of the missing children. Garner and the rest of the cast are also well selected for their roles. Amy Madigan as Gladys does well with making such an outlandish presence creepy and menacing as well.

There were also some pretty sly moments of dark humor that I found to be cleverly planted throughout the script.

There is quite a bit of brutality in this movie that makes it a little hard to watch. I am not normally a squeamish movie-watcher, but some of the scenes tested by nerve a bit.

Some of the characters feel a little cliche at times, but the strong performances help me find some forgiveness there.

It’s an effectively disturbing film, as it was intended. Although I doubt it will achieve any sort of iconic cinematic status, this film is one of a rare breed in today’s cinema in that it was actually pretty compelling.

Classic Film Review: The Strange Women of Limmeridge House

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Woman in White is a mystery drama film that was released in 1948 and is actually quite impressive in regard to the look but is a little slow on the plot development. Peter Godfrey is the director of the film while the screenplay was written by Stephen Morehouse Avery. The film was based on a well-known novel by Wilkie Collins, which was written in 1860. That could explain why the film feels a little slow at times.

Included in the cast are Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet, Gig Young, Agnes Moorehead, and John Abbott.

A man hired to tutor a woman on drawing walks from a train station to an estate known as Limmeridge encounters a woman in white in the night. The woman vanishes when a carriage approaches. The man, Walter Hartright, is told of an asylum nearby, and that a woman had just escaped. Hartright makes it to the house and meets the residents. He then meets Laura Fairlie, who bears a striking resemblance to the woman he encountered during his late-night walk. Hartright begins to learn some strange secrets of the house, including a cousin who disappeared some years before. There is a fortune at stake, and Hartright finds that he may have to free a woman wrongly imprisoned within the asylum and figure out which member of the house is capable of murder to protect their secrets.

Okay, this is a pretty strange and convoluted plot. The acting was pretty good though. I also was impressed with the set design considering the time when this film was produced.

It feels a bit of a slog to sit through this thing at times because I had a hard time staying focused on the gist of the story.

It is a film that take some concentration at times.

The costuming and set design were remarkably well done. It’s a very pretty movie to watch in spite of it being in black and white. That alone may be enough reason to give this another viewing.

Anyway, there are some challenges when it comes to understanding the motivations of the characters and some elements of the story, but it’s still a film worthy of some time.

Film Review: An Exorcism For The Road

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Conjuring: Last Rites is a decent enough send-off to this branch of the horror franchise that starred Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. The film is directed by Michael Chaves, and the screenplay is written by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick with James Wan sharing story credit.

Wilson and Farmiga reprise their roles as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the reputed paranormal investigators who allegedly conducted several exorcisms over the years. Mia Tomlinson plays their only daughter, Judy Warren. Ben Hardy, Elliot Cowan, Rebecca Calder, and Steve Coulter are also included in the cast.

The Warrens have largely stepped away from exorcisms and major investigations in favor of writing and lecturing due to Ed’s heart issues. Their daughter gets drawn into the supernatural plight of the Smurl family, who have been dealing with various ghostly manifestations for several months that seen to be centered around a strange-looking mirror that was gifted to one of the daughters. Judy is also recently engaged, and the young man is pulled into this last dance with the demonic.

This film is actually pretty good. It is somewhat predictable, but I have come to enjoy the chemistry between the two lead actors here. I am not sure that I really believe in the legend of the Warrens, but I like the portrayal put forth by Wilson and Farmiga. The film also strangely seems to promote the benefits of a loving, committed marriage and even manages to not bash the Christian faith.

The jump scares are pretty standard but well done. The background of the spirits menacing the Smurls is pretty standard. Not much is done here to break new cinematic ground, but I didn’t necessarily mind that.

The performances were solid enough, and I felt sympathy for the people involved. It’s pretty obvious that quite a bit of artistic license was used, but the film worked well enough to shrug that off.

This film is not really any sort of masterpiece of the horror genre, but it gets the job done as far as being a reasonable diversion from the daily stressors of life. That’s just fine with me. Go see it with my blessing, for all that is worth.

Film Reviews: Some Sinners Never Seem To Die

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Sinners is a new horror film written and directed by Ryan Coogler, and it holds up rather well considering the genre. Coogler has gained some deserved acclaim for Black Panther and the Creed films. This film isn’t going to be the one to knock him off his perch.

Michael B. Jordan has a dual role playing twin brothers known as Smoke and Stack. Okay, the nicknames are a little over the top, but I do still think being called Smoke at least would be kind of cool. Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmu Mosaku, Delroy Lindo, and Miles Caton are included in the cast and are solid choices.

Smoke and Stack leave the urban troubles of gangster-ridden Chicago and return to the Mississippi Delta with a lot of cash and ambitions to open a juke joint in 1932. Past romances seem to be rekindled. Old friends unite to pull off this little party, and troubles involving the Ku Klux Klan aren’t going to be a major headache. Of course, Smoke and Stack are former soldiers and gangsters, so they are not so easily perturbed by racists and killers. When the vampires crash the party, that’s a little different matter.

First of all, the setting is great. Jordan is easily a compelling presence, and he does well with playing both brothers. The cast altogether is quite effective. The brothers have a cousin they recruit for the musical talent. Miles Caton is a great find with his smooth baritone. This seems to be the early days of the blues, and the soundtrack is pretty captivating. The idea in the film is that blues music can have mystical powers when played by the right musician. I can almost buy it after this film.

O’Connell plays the lead vampire, who happens to be Irish, and that culture seems to get kind of a nod as well.

The story takes its time getting going, but once the bad guys are revealed, it gets interesting and would be terrifying if I was a bit more of a nervous disposition.

There are some interesting twists toward the end. There are plenty of vampire flicks, but Coogler seems to found a vein of something original.

This film did ensure that I will be keeping an eye out for Coogler’s next project.

Film Review: The Crooked Man Is About To Get Straightened Out By Hellboy

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Hellboy: The Crooked Man brings back that demonic superhero who is sometimes known as Big Red. Too bad Hellboy couldn’t return to a more coherent script. Brian Taylor is the director working from a script he had co-written with Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola. Mignola is the creator of Hellboy for Dark Horse Comics.

Jack Kesy has taken over the role which was previously played by Roy Perlman and David Harbour. The cast also includes Jefferson White, Adeline Rudolph, Joseph Marcell, and Leah McNamara.

The year is 1959, and Hellboy and a young agent of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense are on a train taking some strange supernatural spider to their headquarters. The spider suddenly grows to a massive size and initiates a wreck that enables its escape. As Hellboy and Bobbie Jo Song try to retrieve the eight-legged menace, they realize that another supernatural force is in the rural Appalachian region. The encounter a local resident named Tom who once indulged in witchcraft. A malevolent being known as the Crooked Man has returned. Hellboy and his young partner are drawn into another strange battle with demonic forces.

Perlman remains the best version of this character. Kesy is not a terrible lead actor, but the script is rather confusing and doesn’t serve him well. Also, I would have no idea that this was taking place in 1959 if it weren’t for the notice at the beginning of the film.

This also did not seem to have had a comparable production budget as the previous installments. I can normally handle somewhat subpar special effects if the script made more sense.

The film ended up being a bit of a jumble. Hellboy’s wisecracks don’t land as effectively as in other films.

Hellboy fans will likely be pleased that another film is out there, and it really isn’t that terrible. It’s an adequate diversion but a very forgettable one in spite of the distinctiveness of Hellboy’s appearance.

Book Review: Holly Has Someone to Find And Has To Play For Keeps

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Stephen King continues his literary reign of terror in Holly, which was first published in 2023. King revisits a character who was first introduced in what is known as the Bill Hodges trilogy which began with Mr. Mercedes.

Holly Gibney has inherited the Finders Keepers Detective Agency from her friend and mentor, Bill Hodges. She is coping with her mother’s death from COVID and learns some troubling secrets that were kept from her. A desperate mother has shown up at her office and wants to hire her to locate her missing daughter. The investigation places Holly on a collision course with two very old, very strange professors with horrific appetites. Rodney and Emily Harris are trying to stave off the consequences and ravages of old age and are testing out some troubling theories to do just that. Holly has already faced down some monstrous killers, but the Harrises may indeed the most horrific of the bunch.

King has indicated a deep affection for this character and is featuring her in an upcoming novel. I am, not quite as enamored with this one at first, but as the confrontation with the Harrises comes to a head, King still has me rooting for her. I had some trouble staying interested in this one for a while, however I got a bit more engage when Holly picks up their trail, and it was becoming clearer as to what the Harrises were actually doing.

King does make some of his political leanings a bit more obvious than I remember him doing in previous works, so that was also a little distracting. I, of course, know he and I would disagree sharply on many issues including decisions made during the COVID lockdowns, but I do believe him to be a talented and interesting writer.

King is good enough to keep me from actually hating his novels, and Holly herself shows some grit that I ended up ultimately respecting.

I don’t consider this to be one of King’s greatest efforts, but the climax of the story was just exciting enough to keep me from hating it. There is even some hope that I will end up liking Holly Gibney a bit more if I decide to read her next adventure.

So, the unending literary journey continues with a more recent voice as I return to the imagination of Freida McFadden through the pages of Never Lie.

Film Review: Hijackers And Vampires Do Not Play Well Together

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Blood Red Sky is a pretty interesting horror action film directed by Peter Thorwarth, who also cowrote the script alongside Stefan Holtz. It concerns a mother who is soon revealed to be a vampire on her way to America for treatment. The flight gets interrupted when the flight is hijacked, and the mother is unable to control her unnatural urges.

The cast includes Peri Baumeister, Alexander Scheer, Kais Setti, and Dominic Purcell.

Baumeister plays a widow who appears to have leukemia; however, her affliction is even less common and more horrifying. She and her son board a plane where she is going to a treatment facility that could apparently treat her bloodthirsty condition. Her hopes get derailed when the plane gets hijacked. Her curse may be the only weapon she has to protect her son and other passengers.

This is one of the better horror films I have seen recently. It is from a German production company, so that is kind of interesting. Purcell was only cast member I recognized from the television series Prison Break.

Anyway, the visual effects were pretty good. The transformation that Baumeister undergoes was quite impressive.

It’s a pretty gruesome piece of work, but there seemed to be some restraint exercised.

Scheer also deserves a specific shout-out for his performance as one of the hijackers known as Eightball. He seemed to get into his role and was genuinely disturbing.

There are moments between the mother and child that are quite heartbreaking and well-performed. The young actor, Carl Koch, gets a little too shrill at times, but he does a pretty good job overall.

It’s a strange, chaotic script, but it turned out to be a pretty compelling and suspenseful film. If one enjoys vampires mixed with hijacked airplanes, this is a film to not ignore.